The present invention relates to multipurpose hand tools, and in particular to such a tool which has over-center locking pliers and can be folded into a compact configuration.
Folding multipurpose hand tools have become well known in recent years. Representative tools of this sort are disclosed in, for example, Leatherman U.S. Pat. No. 4,238,862, Leatherman U.S. Pat. No. 4,888,869, Sessions et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,212,844, Frazer U.S. Pat. No. 5,267,366, MacIntosh U.S. Pat. No. 5,697,114, Gardiner et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,791,002 and Frazer U.S. Pat. No. 5,809,599. While many of such tools have included folding pliers, only Thai U.S. Pat. No. 5,029,355 discloses pliers capable of being locked by an over-center locking arrangement, and whose jaws can be folded to make such a tool more compact. The Kershaw Multi-Tool(trademark), now on the market, has over-center locking pliers, but the jaws do not fold. Of course, the best known of locking pliers is the Peterson Vise-Grip(copyright), but it is not foldable for compact storage, nor is it multipurpose.
Previously-known multipurpose tools with over-center locking pliers have been of operable design, but have lacked strength, or useful features, or have been unattractive in appearance, or have not been able to be folded into a suitably compact configuration; and thus such tools have been less than completely satisfactory for their intended purpose.
In multipurpose folding tools, various latch mechanisms have been utilized in the past, as represented, for example, by Seber et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,765,247, and Swinden et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,781,950, to retain folding tool bits and blades in desired positions, either folded and stowed within a cavity provided in a tool handle, or rigidly and safely extended ready for use. The previously available latching arrangements, however, have had various drawbacks, either from the standpoint of operability, strength, and reliability, or from the standpoint of manufacturing costs.
Socket wrenches and hex bit drivers are well known. Adaptors to connect hex bits or sockets or both to multipurpose tools are also well known. See, for example, Heldt U.S. Pat. No. 4,519,278, Chen U.S. Pat. No. 5,033,140, Lin U.S. Pat. No. 5,251,353, Park U.S. Pat. No. 5,280,659, and Cachot U.S. Pat. No. 5,809,600. Tool bit drive adaptors, however, are an additional item which must be carried and kept together with the multipurpose tool to enable it to be used to drive such tool bits. Also, currently available drivers do not work well with special bits, such as corkscrews, which must be pulled, rather than pushed, in use.
What is desired, then, is an improved folding multipurpose tool including pliers with over-center locking jaws capable of exerting significant gripping force and whose jaws can be folded. Also desired are a folding multipurpose tool including an improved mechanism for locking and unlocking various blades, and a folding multipurpose tool including an improved holder for hex bit tools. Preferably, such a tool should be of sturdy, reliable construction, be able to be manufactured at a reasonable cost, and have a pleasing appearance, and be capable of folding into a compact storage configuration so as to be easily carried and readily available for use when needed. Also preferable in such a tool is that most of the motions and positionings of the various components that are required when using the tool occur automatically or are intuitive to the user.
The present invention overcomes some of the aforementioned shortcomings of the prior art and answers some of the aforementioned needs by providing a folding multipurpose tool incorporating adjustable locking pliers jaws that can be extended into an operational configuration in which the tool may be adjusted to grip objects of different sizes and may be locked by an over-center mechanism while still providing gripping force against an object or objects located between the jaws.
In one preferred embodiment of such a tool a pair of jaws are mounted on a jaw pivot shaft on one end of a first handle, and a corresponding end of a second handle is removably connected to a lower one of the jaws to control its movement toward an upper one of the jaws.
In one preferred embodiment of the invention, a jaw-moving linkage includes a pair of struts extending between the handles, and the jaws extend between the struts when the tool is folded into a compact folded configuration.
As another separate aspect of the present invention, a folding tool including locking pliers has a jaw-moving linkage including a thrust body which interconnects a portion of the jaw-moving linkage to one jaw of the pliers through a pivot joint including mating concave and convex surfaces contacting each other, through which the jaw-moving linkage pushes against a heel portion of that jaw.
In one embodiment of that aspect of the invention a spring detent arrangement is provided to keep the pivot joint assembled as desired but permit it to be disconnected easily in order to fold the jaws into the handle to place the tool into its compact folded configuration.
Another separate aspect of the present invention is to provide a latch mechanism to retain one or more folding blades or tool bits in a selected position with respect to a handle of a multipurpose folding tool.
In a preferred embodiment of this aspect of the invention such a mechanism includes a latch release lever carried on a pivot in a channel-configured portion of one of the handles, and a spring formed as a portion of the handle keeps a catch body carried on the latch release lever engaged with at least one of the blades.
In one preferred embodiment of this aspect of the invention each of the blades includes a base portion defining a notch from which the catch body can be released to permit the blade to be moved between its folded and extended positions, while the catch body still prevents the blade from being moved beyond its intended extended position, and the handle and the latch release lever cooperate to prevent the catch body from moving beyond its intended blade-releasing position.
Yet another separate aspect of the present invention is that it provides a tool bit drive socket, with a threaded bore at an inner end of the socket, allowing the tool bit drive socket to receive not only conventional tool bits but also special bits threaded at one end.
The foregoing and other objectives, features, and advantages of the invention will be more readily understood upon consideration of the following detailed description of the invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.